Runzulu was in a state of panic, she who hated humans so much, found it nauseating to be defeated in battle. With her gift, she could call up the dark-elves soul inside a human's body, with that they clearly had an advantage by numerous, by staying at Midgard for many years she knew about their politics, culture, strategies and other kinds of information that she needed to have in order to successfully invade the world without any problems.
She has set her eyes for the invasion of the whole human world and yet right even before it, she was already met with heavy resistance she didn't expect, and it was done by no more than a small neighboring kingdom, who was in smaller numbers.
Anger poured through her, as she saw through the eyes of her soldiers, the panicking possessed knights, the elf-general that just have died, their pitiful telepathic screams for help as they scattered, and their reckless and mindless charge resulting in killing themselves.
All of these happened with the humans having no losses at all. As she looked in her mind, she saw from a distance the peculiar weapons that the enemy used, in the years that she stayed and observed their world, the weapon wasn't something that should have existed.
"I have already scanned this human's memories but I can't find anything about that weapon! This is an anomaly! This must have been brought by Muspelheim, otherwise, how would they get those weapons? I have been on guard, but they have adapted to Muselpheim's magic too fast! Damned humans!" she told herself as she resided on the emperor's body that sat on the Kydus throne.
She was guarded by four strong fully manifested dark elf fighters she handpicked, they guarded her as a queen would be. In the dark-elves domain and world colonies she was no more than a high-priest that reported to the dark-elf king, but with her gift she was sent to the world of the humans and now she enjoyed sitting at the throne just as how her rulers did, to satisfy her envy.
After all the years she had to put up controlling humans that disgusted her so much, it was finally the time to reap her rewards, to be the queen of the new colony or to ascend to higher ranks.
"If it weren't for that small kingdom!!!" she gripped an arm of the throne which was made of steel and with the bare hands of the emperor's body she crushed it, to take out her anger.
The human hand bled and was distorted, but it didn't matter to her, just as if nothing happened, she restored back the hand in a blink of an eye, but as she did this, she sensed something approaching her.
"Now what is it?!" she couldn't take any more humiliation than she already has.
She scanned the emperor's mind to find an answer, and an image of a passageway appeared on its mind.
"Ohoho, this is a great chance to vent my anger," as she was about to stand and welcome her enemies that lurked at an entrance adjacent to the throne room, an object was thrown in front of the throne, it rolled and emitted smoke, the smoke covered the whole room making her the warriors confused, "huh? Is this also one of their tricks? Sneaky humans!"
She scanned the room with her eyes, but the visibility was poor, shortly a phoenix appeared and with a piercing cry it dived into the dark elf warriors, the flap of the phoenix wings cleared the smoke, and two of the warriors were turned into cinders, with the other two having burns and wounds all over.
...
"DAMNED HUMANS!!!" the voice of the emperor shook the palace. After Andrei threw the smoke bomb, Gideon fired a phoenix and killed two of the underlings.
"So it's weak to purification magic huh?" Gideon thought as he saw the smoke clear up with two of the guards turned into cinders. The two dark elf warriors covered in black armor all-over stopped moving for a bit and were clearly taken aback, but in a few seconds, without a sound they started to stand up and get picked up weapons as if the burns they suffered was nothing.
"Erneis, you're up!" Gideon commanded as he swung his wand towards the dark elven knights, he immediately started chanting his spell,
[ Fire that scorches all creation, O' Pure Flames! Burn up and be Reborn! Phoenix! ]
Flames of the same phoenix that dived appeared in the middle of the air as a small bird, then gradually grew bigger and bigger until it became the same size as the previous phoenix, it hovered with its feathers and wings made of fire.
Erneis nodded and unsheathed the sword on his side, it was a silver sword that had metal chains with it, as he brandished it to his right wind gathered swirling around it.
He courageously stood before the enemies who stood more than 7ft tall, and with his strong hands, with all his force he stuck the sword to the ground, the floor made of bricks shattered and at the same time specs of dust flew to different directions as if the wind carried it way when it created a great vibration, the white-haired knight started his incantation.
[ By Pride and Justice, Winds of Time, Winds of space, Winds that all around me race! Be unleashed and take my shields! Cut through the enemies that I face!]
From the sword he stuck to the ground, a gale appeared with four floating barriers around it, the floating barriers that were in the form of a shield shifted its shape and it took the form of deadly greatsword as it danced and spun with the gale.
"Burn them!" Gideon aimed his wand at the remaining guards, the phoenix once again screeched and dived towards the warriors; it flapped its wings and dived towards them, however, it was met with a black curtain and was extinguished to nothingness.
"Wha-" Gideon exclaimed, "it's the same magic!" then he looked at the throne, it was his beloved emperor casting it, but his skin was rotting, his complexion became pale purple, and ears grew from him. "How much will you defile the body of our ruler!" he screamed within his heart as he bit his lips in anger, the emperor that he fought with was no more, and now his body is being used as a tool for massacre.
"Then how about this!" Erneis held the sword on the ground, turned it, and focused on the warriors covered by the dark curtain, the gale followed where his eyes and the direction of the blade. The curtain looked like a wide sheet of paper and looked large upfront but Erneis made the deadly gale move around it and crashed it against the two warriors cutting their bodies to pieces.
"This is punishment! You devils!" The old man had rage written on his face, behind them were corpses of the children and babies used for sacrifices, there were two piles of it, it was the first sight that greeted them when they opened the passageway and was the smell that invaded their noses.
"Andrei!" Erneis shouted, Andrei also had the same look, his eyes were sharp, unlike his usual self, this time he had the urge to kill the one responsible for the slaughter of the children behind him, he couldn't forgive them for it, he swiftly ran to the entrance carrying his flintlock, then hid at the sidewalls of the entrance for cover, he loaded, aimed at the emperor and pulled the trigger.
[Boom!]
The sound of a gunshot echoed in the room, the emperor canceled the dark curtain he used to protect his underlings and used it to cover himself, but the bullet devoid of any magic passed through it without any problem.
The bullet pierced the chest and blood splattered out of it, but contrary to Andrei's expectations, it didn't do any damage, it was sucked and healed immediately. "So this is what I have seen huh? An exploding staff, but it doesn't have that much power than I thought HAHA! This will be easy! I panicked for nothing!"
The emperor manifested two big unholy swords beside his hands and brandished them while floating. "I'll kill them while I have the chance, who knows what more tricks they have, in a fair fight they are nothing!"
"Tch," Andrei was irritated that his bullet didn't have any effect, he loaded the flintlock again in the same process, but this time the possessed emperor sent unholy swords flying to him. When he saw this he immediately rolled forward to evade it.
One of the swords hit the wall he was using for cover, but it opened a path for the other one to follow, it was so quick that when he glanced it was already at his back, "damn, it'll hit me!" He bit his lip and braced himself for the pain as he landed after his roll.
However Rara appeared in front of him and shielded him with her greatsword, she used the wide side of the greatsword to stop the unholy sword that was about to cut Andrei. The force of the sword was stronger than her, however, Rara had the ability to strengthen any kind of weapon, making the greatsword the sturdiest shield she can ever have in the situation.
But still, she had a body of a girl, even how sturdy the makeshift shield was, the impact sent her flying towards Andrei whom she was shielding, her white hair fluttered in Andrei's eyes, as she got thrown to him, she caught her with his body but the momentum was still not finished, it became so heavy that they got thrown back to the corpses of children at their back which saved them as a cushion.
"Uahh," Andrei almost threw up and covered his mouth, as he saw the faces of the dead children around him, some of them didn't have eyes, and most of them had either broken skulls and jaws other had clear blunt injuries, indicating that they were killed in the most gruesome manner, "how could they do this!" he strongly thought as anger flooded his veins. "This is not time to throw up!" he propped himself using the flintlock.
"Rara are you okay?" but she wasn't there anymore, she had already got her greatsword at her hands also propping herself with it, as she already bruised her foot while protecting him.
"Just be patient father, I'll free your body from that evil!" She didn't have a shred of hesitancy in her red eyes, before, she had hoped that there would still be a bit of trace of her father, but the figure the stood at the throne wasn't her father, it was pure evil.
Erneis still held his sword directed the deadly gale towards the emperor however the possessed emperor had faster reflexes, he manifested unholy swords and this time he held it with his hands and pounced at Erneis who was unguarded.
"Fool!" The possessed emperor's voice echoed as he thought that this was the end of the golden knight that dared to throw magic at him, however, Claire appeared in her green robe and launched multiple metal swords, piercing his body many times, it sliced off some of his limbs while airborne.
The possessed emperor did not have a choice but to forget about the golden knight and land. He grew back his limbs, starting from the bones to the flesh, and just like an animal he crawled in fours while looking at the girl who had metal swords floating and appearing one by one around her.
"So they also have that kind of magic huh? Impressive and rare, isn't she the one who commanded those soldiers that had weird weapons? She's beautiful!!! I want to take over her body and appearance! I want to have the knowledge about those weapons!!!" the high priestess thought to herself, as she admired the beauty and elegance of the girl who sent swords flying to her, inside the body of the emperor her eyes became obsessed, as she scratched her own face with her long nails as if in pleasure.
Andrei had also difficulty in walking, so he knelt, loaded his flintlock, aimed and shot again, this time he got a headshot, however, the bullet was simply absorbed into the skull.
"Damn! I'm useless here!" He thought as he looked at Claire generating swords as much as she could. As more swords floated around claire, the generation became slower and slower and couldn't keep up with the number she threw to the possessed emperor in all fours. Beads of sweat appeared on her face, and her usual deadpan face now struggled as if fighting a headache.
Erneis pulled his sword and held it in his hand preparing for close combat, Gideon on the other hand was sweating due to rebirthing his phoenix two times in succession, he was a great mage but such techniques consumed his mana greatly. Rara had one foot damaged while holding her greatsword.
The possessed emperor who walked in all fours smirked at them, "INSOLENT FOOLS! DO YOU THINK A SURPRISE ATTACK WOULD WORK ON ME!" he was making a fool out of them, the soul inside him was blinded with her desire to take the whole world under her.
"IT'S TIME TO FINISH THIS!"
[Corrupted Beast!]
The human who walked in all fours slowly deformed starting from his back, bones and flesh came out, as is if transforming it into another creature gradually. To Rara who was seeing his father's body turning into a different creature left her stupefied, her eyes shook as memories surfaced while she saw the body turning into something uglier.
"Wh-W-Wh… " she asked while shaking, "What the hell are you doing to my father!!!" She screamed from the bottom of her heart, as it echoed throughout the entire throne room.
Hearing this, Claire didn't just stand and watch, she sent her swords flying towards the creature transforming, Gideon who recovered a bit, pointed his wand towards the transforming creature, and bricks that were enchanted by purifying fire flew towards it.
But both attacks didn't work, swords were deflected by unholy swords that floated while the rocks that had enchantment in them didn't have enough power to get through the creatures flesh that was still gradually growing on it.
Erneis was in his attack stance, while a floating shield protected him, propelled his body towards the gradually transforming beast to prevent it from transforming further. Memories of his grandchildren surfaced as he did this, with their happy faces calling him grandpa while he gave them his homecooked ice cream.
Erneis didn't marry, he didn't have any real sons or grandsons. The children who called him grandpa were kids he adopted from the streets, who were abandoned, sold by their parents who didn't have enough to feed them, or children who tried to steal in order to survive, he gave them a home within Ethareri using his monthly salary and hired a caretaker for them.
Some of them came from different countries, including Kydus, Erneis had saved seven orphans in total, among them Shri was the youngest who followed him everywhere during his day-offs.
Erneis who deeply cared for children, had rage overtook him when he saw the pile of children and babies corpses.
As he propelled further the transforming beast generated a claw, to deflect Erneis and his shield, but he still has his sword, with his sword in two hands he swooped through the beast, in a blink of an eye reaching the other side, he was too fast for the claw to react, the claw that was generated fell down, rotted and turned into ashes.
Erneis with his back turned away from the beast, threw the blood on his sword by swinging it down, he sheathed it again as he turned towards the beast and generated a shield again as he made the same stance to propel himself again.
"You are just a monster with intelligence, I don't know about your business here in this world, but I will not forgive you! I, Erneis Chief Knight of The Golden Order of Ethareri, will slay you!"